


Undertale: The War for Mount Ebott

by Aggiemay



Category: Undertale
Genre: 3rd person pov, Angst, Frisk and Chara origination stories, Maybe some romance (Haven't decided), Moster Abuse and Oppression, Original Characters - Freeform, Original Settings, Some back stories, Surface monsters, Time Travel, Undertale History, Undertale settings, Violence, War, Writer is kind of new to writing, fast burn, human with magic, overworld, potentially crude humor
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-30
Updated: 2016-03-14
Packaged: 2018-05-17 06:23:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 8
Words: 16,189
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5857519
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aggiemay/pseuds/Aggiemay
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sans is reliving the same couple days over and over again like usual, but then one day, a new person arrives and gives Sans an interesting bit of information that will both change the Underground forever and the Surface forever. </p>
<p>Some original characters, original settings outside of the underground, time travel, and some blood will most certainly be in this story. I'll give trigger warnings.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Sans: Definitely Not in the Script

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys! This is my first fan-fic ever, so constructional criticism is welcome! It's going to be a trippy ride so enjoy having your mind potentially blown. I'll try to stay consistent on my postings, so it may take a minute to find a routine 
> 
> I hope you enjoy!

“WAKE UP, SANS! YOU’RE GOING TO BE LATE!”

Sans blinked his eyes open, still a little dazed. He stared up at the ceiling, and drew out a sigh, counting to thirteen in his head. As soon as the countdown ended, a distant yelp was heard coming from the kitchen— Papyrus had spilt some hot spaghetti sauce onto his lap.

Sans jumped up, and slipped his pink slippers on, grabbing his blue coat from the treadmill. He walked into the kitchen, pulled a leftover burger out of the fridge from Grillbyz and sat on the counter, biting into it.

_Needs more ketchup._

Sans grabbed a bottle of ketchup, held onto his sandwich and walked out the door.

He quietly treaded in the snow, listening to the crunch that it made with each step. After about ten minutes of walking on the path, he reached his destination. His post stood there, hidden in the trees, covered in snow. He reached around to the inside, and pulled a fold up chair from underneath a tarp, set it up, and promptly sat in it, his legs kicked up onto the counter. He relaxed his head with his hands interlocked behind his neck, elbows up. Then he closed his eyes. He had about an hour before the kid showed up again. Nothing’s wrong with a nap.

He heard a crunch.

Sans’s eyes flung open, confused. He still had at least 45 minutes before the kid was to show up. Who was there?

Sans snuck behind a tree in front of him, peering around it to see. He saw a flash of red before it disappeared out of line of view. Confused and very curious, he teleported behind a tree on the other side of the path, and looked out. Nothing. Not even a foot print. He slumped his back against the tree, staring out into the woods. About 5 meters away, the land dropped drastically down, like a cliff, for about 10 meters into a pile of rubble. Sometimes he would come over here to sit on the cliff and stare into the vast range of trees that lay before him.

He closed his eyes, listening. Listening for anything.

_Crunch._

_crunch crunch crunch._

The sound faded.

_Who the hell is that?!_ Sans thought to himself. The only person who ever came out of the door anymore was the kid. And the kid never walked that softly— this was not the script; something was horribly messed up this time.

“Well, hello, bone boy.”

Sans spun around, flabbergasted. There, stood a tall, lean girl—no woman? with frizzy, orange hair down past her shoulder blades. She wore a light, yellow dress with small blue printed flowers all over it. The black lace up boots she wore went practically to her knee caps.

And she was human.

_Wait, how—_

“Well don't just stand there! Don’t you know how to greet a new pal?”

_What the fuck?_

Sans just stared at her, confused about how he became the target of his own words. She was smiling sweetly, but there was a certain sparkle in her eyes. Something mischievous. His eyes narrowed. Yep. This was definitely not in the script.

“Who are you?”

The girl—woman’s smile faded for a half-second. But then it came back, fuller than ever, as she looked intensely into san’s eye sockets. His look of confusion was genuine. He was definitely not remembering her.

“Wow. So this really _is_ the first time, isn’t it?” She bantered, slowly walking around the tense skeleton. “Not even a pun. I thought you would say something smart, but then again, first impressions don't really matter anymore, do they?”

Sans blinked a couple times. He thought back through all the resets he had gone through, and could not remember a single one where he met a new person. It had always been Frisk, and that was it.

“The name’s Arial”.

Sans, still dumbfounded, raised his arm up to shake her hand.

_Bleeeerrrch!_

He had shook her hand, but she had a whoopee cushion in her hand…not him...?

_Okay. This is starting to piss me off._ Sans thought to himself, glaring at her. _He_ was supposed to scare the human. _He_ was supposed to say those words. _HE_ was supposed to use a whoopee cushion when he shook hands. That was his thing. And she thought that she could just waltz right into his life, and take everything away from him that gave him joy? But she was….so…new. Like a breath of fresh air. This was certainly more interesting than running the routine with the kid.

Arial giggled uncontrollably.

Sans felt mocked.

“Sorry about raining on your parade, but I couldn’t help myself.” She blushed, with a large grin on her face. “You should definitely look in a mirror. I haven't seen you that spooked in ages!”

_In ages?_

“I’m sorry, what?” Sans stared at her.

“I should probably explain. I….” she stared off into the distance, and pondered her word choices. “I’m not from here.”

_Well that clears it up._

“Where are you from?” Sans asked, the lights in his eye sockets following her dance like movements as she jumps, twirls, and skips around him.

“Aboveground.” She does a jump and twirls in the air, landing lightly on her toes.

Sans sticks his hands in his pockets and leans up against the tree. “Well how did you get down here?”

“There was a hole in the earth.”

“So you fell down.”

“No.” She tries to balance on her toes of one foot like a ballerina. “I used a ladder.”

_So it wasn’t by accident._

“Why did you come down here then? Theres nothing down here, kiddo.”

“ To talk to you.” Arial began jumping from boulder to boulder. “To me? How do—“ Suddenly, Arial lost her grip the a boulder. She was dangling by her fingertips on the edge of the cliff.

“Shit!!”

Sans ran over to the edge of the cliff and tried desperately to reach her. She was too far away for his reach.

“Hold on!! I’ll get you!” Sans shouted at her, focusing on how to levitate her back up with his magic.

“No, no. Its okay.” Arial smiled at Sans. Then, he watched in horror as she released all her fingers, and plummeted off the cliff to her death.

“Arial!” Sans shouted, quickly teleporting down to the bottom of the cliff. He appeared a split second after she smacked onto a boulder, her mangled body going limp. Sans rushed over to the corpse, in complete shock of what just took place. He was just talking to her just a moment before. She was smiling not fifteen seconds ago, without a flaw on her skin. Now, she was a tangled mess, her dress and hair stained red, seeping into the snow.

Then something began happening. Her lifeless body started to crumble and disappear into dust, leaving behind a metal box in the snow. _But, she was human?_ He thought to himself. Sans walked over to the box and reached for it, hands still shaking a little after what just happened.

_What the hell is going on in this timeline?_ He thought, his brow furrowing. Whatever it was, part of him was relieved that something other than the usual happened, and the other part was horrified that the girl tragically fell to her death. He shook the metal box a little, curious of what was inside.

“Stealing from corpses, huh? That’s an all-time low for you.”

Sans froze where he was. He swiveled around, his face contorted in confusion, dread and rage. There she stood, in her utter perfection. Not a single scratch on her. She had an amused look on her face, with her shit-eating grin. Her eyes sparkled.

_Did she really just have the audacity to play on my emotions like that?_

The lights in Sans’s eyes disappeared, leaving his eye sockets a dark void. He was breathing heavily, and his phalanges clenched in a tight fist.

“What. The. Hell. Was. That.”

Arial grinned even wider.

“Answer me!”

Nothing.

A small sliver of Sans was grateful that she was alive. The other 98% wanted to strangle her for scaring him shitless.

“I didn’t mean for that to happen, sorry. I should have told you. People find it hard to… get rid of me.” She grabbed the box from Sans’s hands. “I am here to tell you something. So don’t freak out on me, don’t shoot the messenger… et cetera.”

Arial took a deep breath. “Your world is going to be destroyed.”

Sans was taken aback. His left eye began to glow blue.

“Was that a threat?”

“No. it is a fact.”

“I’m getting real sick of your bullshit, Arial.” Sans began shouting.

“Well!” Arial cursed, clearly pissed at her audience’s unwillingness to listen, “If you don’t listen, you will all be destroyed, and it will be your fault. So listen to me.” She pouted.

His breath quickened, the flame in his left eye getting larger and brighter. “Who the fuck do you think you are? You know nothing of this world. What makes you think that you can go around prophesying its destruction? If you so as think to lay a FINGER on any living thing in the underground—“

Large blue bones encircled the girl, preventing her from moving forward.

**“You’re gonna have a bad time.”**

“Sans, I’m not doing it, I’m trying to he—“

**“ G E T   O U T.”**

Suddenly, the bones flew into the air, punching her in her chest, sending her rocketing into the woods, taking out several trees in the process.

Sans felt a throb in his midsection, then appeared in his room. He walked down stairs, sat down on the couch and played with the zipper on his coat.

He was about to take a deep breath, when suddenly, the throb cam back, except for more sharp and forceful. He stared down at his torso. In mid air, was a lone white, dainty hand, grabbing at his ribs. He felt a strange, powerful pull, and appeared back at the base of the cliff. There stood Arial, her hand clenched to his ribs, her smile no longer there, her eyebrows furrowed.

“I could sit here and tell you all the things that are wrong with that statement, but I’m kinda on a time limit here, buddy.” Sans, completely dumbfounded, simply stared at her face. _What the actual fuck is going on?_

“Sans, just let me say what I have to say, and you can forget I existed. I won’t touch a single hair on anyone’s head here. I don't want to hurt anyone bu—“

“Fine. Tell me what you have to say. You have two minutes.”


	2. Sans: Evacuation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Maybe some shocking stuff.

Sans glared at Arial, His eye sockets black as night, A smile—er grimace, permanently on his face. 

 

“Well?”

 

“Umm, okay, so I am from the Surface. And theres this whole clusterfuck of— well, shit.” Arial looks down at the ground, grimacing as well, trying to figure out a better way to explain.

“Okay so what is important right now is this whole underground,” Arial gestures with her hands to everything, “Is going to collapse. Mount Ebott is going to collapse into the underground because of circumstances I can’t really explain yet, and we need to get everyone out of here. Now. Like, before the end of the day.” She pats her dress. Then, frowning, looks around for the box.

 

Sans throws his phalanges in the air in exasperation. “Well what the fuck am I supposed to do, kid?”

 

“Um, help me find the box..” Ariels eyes widened in panic, “We need to find it immediately.”

 

“What’s in the box?” 

 

Just then Arial trips over something, and with a clank it opens up. An orange, glass heart rolled out, falling into the deep snow. She bends over and gently picks it up, holding it close to her, as if she were trying to warm it up. Sans glances over, and spots it in her hands. His eyes widen, but his light pricks come back to his eyes. 

 

“Is that… is that what I think it is?”

 

“Yep.”

 

“How did you… “

 

“Don’t ask, its a long story.” 

 

Sans frowned. He hated this ‘need to know’ basis, but if what she says is right…

 

“How do you know me?”

 

“I… know you… personally.”

 

_Wow. This day just keeps on getting better and better._

 

“Look. I know you don’t trust me. But we used this machine— and you sent me back to this very place and time, just so I can give you this human soul.” She sighed, the look of defeat crossed her face.

 

“You were sent back in time? In _time?_ And _I_ sent you?” Sans’s eye sockets narrowed. 

  
“I know, it may seem ridiculous… you don’t even have to believe me. We just need to evacuate the underground.” She held up the orange soul to Sans.

 

“So thats how you knew what I was going to say to Frisk, where I was going to be… that I would shake with a whoopee cushion….” Sans stared into her eyes, brows scrunched up. He ever so gently took the human soul, and held it up to the light. “I’m going to be honest, I’m not sure if I should apologize.” 

 

“You could at least say you just had a bad atti— _toot.”_

 

Sans chuckled a little. 

 

“So here’s the plan.” Sans looked up at her. She looked determined as ever. Serious was an understatement. “You need to take this soul to Asgore. It is protected to keep it safe, but once it is absorbed, the protection should melt away.” Once you take it to Asgore, he needs to consume all the souls and open the barrier. As soon as that happens, evacuation needs to be quick and efficient as possible.” She looked Sans into his eye sockets. Was… there a trace of light behind her eyes..? 

  
Sans nodded, contemplating the idea, looking back at the soul. “And what if I don’t?” He looked up again, his eye sockets narrowed. 

 

Arial looked taken aback. She rolled her eyes, sighed. “Then we reset, and start back from here. But do you really want to do that again?” She looks irritated.

 

“I’m still not sure I trust you, kid.” The orange heart went into his pocket, along with his hand. 

 

“Fine. Don’t do it. You’ll do it eventually though.” She muttered.

 

“Why do you care about me anyways?” Sans shot back. He was getting really pissed off again. Did she really expect him to just be okay with doing this without any explanation? 

 

She paused, finding the words. “Beca— because you saved my life. Not the way you think, but in a different way. Plus, you put up a good fight.” She chuckled, “I wasn’t exactly in the mood to _talk things over_ with you at the time.”

 

“So you’re saying you had a _bone_ to pick with me?” Sans grinned slyly. 

 

“Finally a damn pun. I was waiting for one to show up.” Arial laughed.

 

“Well I hope you found it _humerus._ ” Sans grin widened. 

 

“Okay, so something important before you go.” Sans tilted his head in question. “Make sure everyone is far away from the mountain, you know just to make sure.” She turned around, and walked back a little bit before turning back around again. “I’d hate to see you take all that time to get everyone to safety, to have, I don't know, _Frisk_ frisk fall off of something.” She smiled, and then… she blew a… kiss. A kiss to Sans. Sans face blushed a cerulean blue.

 

“Break a leg, Bone Boy.”

 

And in a blink, she was gone. 

 

_Frisk falling off of something? What was that supposed to mean?_ Sans thought, puzzled. Then it dawned on him. 

 

“Oh Shit!! Frisk is probably here!” 

Sans ran to the bridge on the snowy path, and snuck up behind Frisk. 

 

“H u m a n. D o n ‘ t y o u k n o w h o w t o g r e e t a n e w p a l?

 

T u r n a r o u n d a n d s h a k e m y h a n d.”

 

 

______________________________________________________________

 

Sans ran through the motions, hiding Frisk from Papyrus behind the lamp, following the two of them through Papyrus’s puzzles, and even warned him of Papyrus’s “fabled” blue attacks. You know, the one that Sans taught him when he was little in case of emergencies. The the kid, like normal, had lots of fun (Not portrayed by their face). Finally, he saw Frisk off into the waterfall area, to face Undyne. 

 

Sans stuck his phalanges into his coat pockets, and leaned up against a tree. He felt a cold, hard substance in his pocket. Puzzled, he pulled it out, and the orange heart glinted in the ambient light. 

 

“Fuck!” Sans shouted, standing up immediately, and quickly checked the area for witnesses. When he saw all was clear, his chest (or lack there of) throbbed, and instantly in the throne room.Asgore, who clearly did not notice Sans, was humming a familiar tune whilst watering all the yellow flowers that littered the floor by the throne. He was a large, muscular, goat—like man with curved horns on his head, and with flowing blond hair. His royal purple cloak draped down to his feet. 

 

Sans cleared his throat. “Asgore.”

 

Asgore spun around, clearly not expecting to see anyone, let alone Sans. Sans didn’t visit a lot, and Asgore respected that space. 

 

“Oh, howdy Sans! You were so quiet, I didn’t even know you were standing there.” Asgore let out a great belly laugh, and placed his hand on Sans’s shoulder. “Would you like me to get you some tea? You look like you’ve seen a ghost or something!” 

 

Sans ran a phalange over his skull, and sighed. “Asgore, I have good news and I have bad news.”

 

Asgore watched Sans, interested, and slightly worried. “Well speak up, boy! Let us have the good news first.”

 

Sans dug around in his pocket, and ever-so-gently pulled it out, and held it in front of him. “This is a human soul. The seventh, human soul.” 

 

Asgore’s eyes widened, and gasped. He reached for it, beckoning it with his magic. “Sans! Where did you get this? Did a human come through?” 

 

Sans internally laughed. _You have no idea Asgore._ He paused, and considered whether he wanted to tell Asgore about Arial or not. _I think it would best if I didn’t._ “I actually found the poor buddy in the snow. The kiddo froze to death, I recon.” 

 

“Well, thank you, Sans!” Asgore practically jumped for joy. “I’m going to call Dr. Alphys, and we will deploy our evacuation first thing in the morning!” He had a huge grin plastered on his face.

 

Just then, there was a tremor in the ground. A loud _smack!_ was made by some earth above them, followed by the sound of metal scratching metal. 

 

_What the hell?!_ Sans was thrown slightly off balance. Asgore gently positioned his hand on San’s shoulder. 

 

“How strange!” Ashore looked around. There was a crack in the wall where there wasn’t one before. “I’ve had dreams about this every now and then.” 

 

Then, there was a second tremor, this one a lot larger, and a lot more violent. A large stone fell out of the ceiling, just barely missing Asgore by a foot.

 

The lights in Sans’s eyes disappeared as a familiar voice spoke in his mind, _“Better hurry up, Bone Boy.”_

 

“Asgore, we need to evacuate now. I think we’ll be lucky if there _is_ a tomorrow.” 

 

Asgore nodded, bringing his cellphone to his face. He waited patiently, frowned slightly when the call when to voicemail. “Hey Dr. Alphys, its Asgore! Good news! I have the seventh soul! However, I do need you to pick up…”

 

_Damn! Was Frisk already in the Hotlands?_

 

Sans almost panicked. But then…

 

“Asgore, consume the souls now. I will go get Alphys.” Before Asgore had a chance to respond, Sans ran out of the throne room, made sure no one was there, and teleported to the lab. It was dark, except for the large monitor, which was brightly displaying Frisk and Mettaton at a cooking show. In front of the monitor, hunched over, was a yellow, scale covered creature, with a white lab coat on. She was stuttering urgently into her phone. 

 

“Alphys!” Sans shouted, his eyes still lightless.

 

“AARAHAHGH!” Dr. Alphys screamed, falling out of her desk chair. Definitely not expecting Sans. He flicked the lights on. Raman noodles had spilt all over her clean lab coat, and she was stammering to herself, regaining her wits. “S-sans! Y-you terrified me! I-i thought M-mettaton had come b-back to get me…” 

 

Sans looked at the screen. Mettaton was still there, baking with Frisk. Alphys looked at the screen, and then blushed profusely. 

 

“Alphys, Asgore has the seven souls now. He consumed them, but if you remember the tremors earlier, something is happening. We need to evacuate. Now.” 

 

“A-asgore found a soul? Yay!” she cheered, “That means Frisk can stay, then that means…Oh!”

 

Mettaton was about to splatter Frisk when Dr. Alphys stumbled for the microphone. “M-mettaton! A-asgore found the seventh soul! Y-you don’t have to kill Frisk!” On screen, the robot paused, and then apologized to the audience, and rolled off stage. Alphys turned to Sans, relief on her face.

 

“Alphys, we need the plans for the evacuation.” Sans was very tense. This was taking longer than he had hoped. 

 

“Well don’t worry! I will give them to A-asgore tomorrow!” She was so excited about Frisk that she did not notice Sans’s glare.

 

“I don’t think you understand the gravity of this situation.” Sans got closer to the yellow lizard. 

  
“Heh, heh good pun, S-Sans!” 

 

“Alphys!” Sans was shouting now. “I need the plans. N O W.” His left eye started to turn blue. Alphys shrunk back from Sans, terrified. 

 

“O-okay, S-sans, I’ll b-bring them r-right over…” She shuffled to a side table, and flicked through a filing cabinet. She pulled out a folder. San’s eye dimmed down, but he was still worried. Alphys opened up the folder, and began flipping through various pages. Her hands were shaking. “Ahh, H-here we are!” she exclaimed, then rushed back to the console. She began typing up some sort of code on the large screen, her claws flying at the keys. 

 

Just then, there was a clank at the door. Sans turned around, and the door quickly flew up, revealing a metal box covered in a yellow and red flashing panel. It moved around with a single leg, using a wheel instead of a foot. It had flexible arms that looked not unlike dryer tubes, with two—pronged clamps as hands. It was Mettaton. 

 

“Why, Hello, my beauties! Dr. Alphys, why did you call me back? Did you need me to find more anim— “ 

 

“No! n-no, I mean. Mettaton, you remember Sans, don’t you?”

 

“Sans! You are looking spec—tacular! That glowing eye is just—your—color!” Mettaton’s panel flashed a yellow exclamation mark with a red background.

 

Sans glared at the robot. This robot was the only entertainment in the underground, and by consequence it was what Papyrus had always put on the television. He had sat through the same Mettaton movie just about every night for the past countless cycles. He also found Mettaton to be an arrogant prick.

 

“I’m not in the mood to talk to a piece of scrap metal right now.”

 

Mettaton’s panel flashed a question mark. “Well, darling, I hope I didn't spoil your mood!”

 

Alphys threw her fists into the air. “All done! Now we wait for the interc—“

 

“Evacuation code sequence 262 ready for deployment. All monsters return to your homes and await instructions.” The intercoms were blaring all over the underground. The televisions stopped their programs and showed the same announcement. Commotion was heard outside as monsters began to return to their houses. Then, the earth shook. This time is was a lot more impactful. Sans ran outside of the lab, only to see boulders fall from the ceiling of the cave and crush a monster. He winced. _Was I too late?_ He worried, _Do I need to do this again?_

Then after about thirty minutes, the intercoms started up again. “Monsters in the CORE. Report to the throne room. Monsters in the CORE. Report to the throne room. Bring only essentials that you can carry.”

 

Sans felt a buzz in his pocket. he picked up his phone. Papyrus. _Well shit, I probably should check on him, make sure he’s okay._

 

While Alphys and Mettaton’s backs were turned, Sans teleported back to his house in Snowdin. 

 

“SANS! SANS?? BROTHER! WHERE ARE YOU? YOU NEED TO PACK YOUR BAGS!” Papyrus was rushing around the house, in a panic. He had an open suitcase sitting on the table, with a spare cape, his “dating” clothes, and a gallon-sized bag full of spaghetti. He was so distraught. Sans stopped him in the living room. 

 

“Papyrus, do you have everything?” 

 

“AH! BROTHER, I WAS WONDERING WHERE YOU WENT OFF TO… THE GREAT PAPYRUS HAS PACKED HIS BAGS! WHERE IS YOUR BAG? BROTHER, YOU MUST PACK!” Papyrus put his phalanges on his cheek bones, with a look of despair.

 

The intercom started up again. “Monsters in the HOTLANDS. Report to the throne room. Monsters in the HOTLANDS. Report to the throne room. Bring only essentials that you can carry.”

 

Sans walked up to his room, grabbed an old dusty backpack and put some tennis shoes in there, along with his dusty blue sweatshirt and two bottles of ketchup. He teleported to the back of the house, and used a hidden key to unlock the door to the back room. There, he looked at the book case full of scientific journals, lab reports, and blue prints. He took his time and picked out several of each, and put them in his backpack. 

 

The intercom started up again. “Monsters in the WATERFALL. Report to the throne room. Monsters in the WATERFALL. Report to the throne room. Bring only essentials that you can carry.”

 

He was about to walk out, but then he noticed a photograph. He picked it up, looking at it closely. It was a picture of the inside of the lab with Sans standing off to one side, smiling, his arm awkwardly extended, as if it were wrapped around an invisible pillar. His other hand sat on the shoulder of Papyrus, who was about a foot shorter than Sans at the time. Papyrus had an over sized lab coat on, and he was grinning cheek to cheek. 

 

Sans opened up a journal, and placed it underneath the cover, and carefully put it in his back pack. He walked out just to hear the intercom call.

 

“Monsters in SNOWDIN. Report to the throne room. Monsters in SNOWDIN. Report to the throne room. Bring only essentials that you can carry.”

 

He walked outside to the front of his house. Grillbyz emptied out onto the street, and so did the shop and inn. He stopped inside Grillbyz, looking around the dark room. He had never seen it so dark before— Grillby had always _lit_ the place up. He chuckled at his own joke. He sat down at the bar, in his usual spot, and took a deep breath. Then, he felt a pang in his chest, and he appeared in front of the large wooden door, from which Frisk had always exited. 

 

The scent of butterscotch— cinnamon pie filled the air, causing him to drool slightly. 

 

Knock Knock.

 

“Who’s there?” asked a sweet, motherly voice. 

 

“Orange.”

 

“Orange who?”

 

“Orange you going to come out?”

 

The sweet voice chuckled. “I heard the intercom from inside. There’s an evacuation?” She asked confused.

 

“Well, Asgore has the seventh human soul, so he broke the barrier. Also, if you haven’t noticed the shaking yet, I’m pretty sure this place is going to collapse.”

 

Sans heard a gasp, and then sobs. He ran up to the door, trying to listen, do something— anything. “Hey, are you alright?”

 

She spoke through sobs, “You told me you would protect them!” She cried. “You promised! My little F-frisk…”

 

Sans heard her slide down the door. He leaned back on the door. He couldn't use the same lie on her as he did with Asgore. But, maybe he could tell the truth…? Sans took breath, and paused. “M-mom, umm, Frisk is still alive, I promise.” 

 

The crying stopped. There was a sniffle. “F-frisk is alive?” There was hope in her voice, “I don’t understand, my dear. H-how did you get a human soul if Frisk is still alive?”

 

“I can’t tell you, and I don't know if you would understand if I did, but just trust me. Frisk is alive and doing well, and if you step out from that door, maybe we can get to safety too?” 

 

“My child, I don’t think there will be anything for me outside this place… You go. Keep yourself safe.”

 

Sans’s heart tore at his chest, that is, if he had a heart. “No, you’re coming with me! No one has anything for them outside the underground, but at least we still have each other…” 

 

“Its quite alright, sweetie. Go on ahead. Just remember, I love you.”

 

Tears filled up Sans’s eye sockets as the lights in his eyes disappeared, leaving his left eye to burn a cobalt blue. Sans turned around and ripped the door off its hinges, much to his counterpart’s surprise. “Grab. My. Hand.” There sat a tall, goat like woman, with white fur covering her, and with soft ears. She was dressed in a purple gown with the royal crest on it. She was drying her tears, and she looked terrified. 

 

Oh.

 

Sans was floating. 

 

Sans drifted back to the ground, and took the goat—lady’s hand. They both felt a tug at their chest and suddenly, they were in the last corridor. 

 

Ambient light filled the hall, falling from the stain glass windows. It was the closest thing to sunlight in the underground. The place was packed. Another tremor, and people were shouting, pushing, crying and overall trying to get into the throne room to leave through the barrier. Out of the corner of his eye, Sans spotted Frisk, who was clinging on to Papyrus. Still holding the goat— lady’s hand, he started squeezing through the crowd to get to them.

 

“Papyrus!” Sans shouted, but it appeared to be lost in the sound of the crowd. Papyrus looked even more terrified than Frisk did. Luckily for Sans, Papyrus happened to look their way.

 

“SANS!!” Papyrus exclaimed. The goat lady noticed little Frisk. “Frisk, my sweetheart!” The goat lady ducked down to hug Frisk. Frisk gave her a fierce hug. Papyrus hugged Sans. “I WAS WORRIED YOU MIGHT HAVE FALLEN BEHIND. I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WOULD HAVE GONE AFTER YOU!”

 

“Nah. I was just _catching up._

 

Papyrus face-palmed. “SANS! I WILL NOT PUT UP WITH THIS ON THE SURFACE!” 

 

The goat—lady giggled. “You’re such a nice boy, wanting to help out your brother. I believe we took a —“ She looked at Sans. Sans shook his head. “… a shortcut.” She smiled simply.

 

“Well, now that we have actually seen each other, what is your name?” Sans asked.

 

“Toriel. And you, my child?” 

 

“I’m Sans, Sans the skeleton!” He smiled, and offered his hand for a shake.

 

_Bleeeerrrch!_

 

_“_ My, what was that?” Toriel was startled.

 

Sans grinned. “Whoopee cushion. Works every time.”

 

Suddenly, the pressure got even worse. More monsters started pouring into the corridor, and it caused the monsters to squeeze together. Then, the earth shook again, this time, breaking a stain glass window. Monsters screamed and howled, terrified. _We should be moving by now. What is going on up there?_

 

“Hey, Toriel, I’m going to check and see whats going on up front. Can you, you know, distract them?” Toriel looked into his eye sockets, with a puzzled and worried face. 

 

“Okay, Sans. Please, be careful.” She turned to Papyrus and Frisk. “Hey, did you want to hear about something? I have a new recipe for snail-kabobs…” 

 

Sans felt a pang in his chest, and suddenly he was at the barrier. Asgore was… nowhere to be seen? There weren’t any monsters around, either. Sans looked around, confused and desperate. “Asgore? Where did you…” He heard a grunt. He looked down, and there Asgore was, hanging off of a ledge, by his fingers. Sans bent down. “Asgore! Let me help you up!” Sans left eye glowed blue, and he summoned a gasterblaster canine head to lift Asgore up from underneath him. 

 

“T-thank you, Sans. That’s the second time you’ve saved us all today!” Asgore dusted off his cloak, and cracked his knuckles. “The ground shook and a hole appeared and I almost fell.”

 

“Did no one follow you into your house?” Sans asked

 

“I didn’t know how the barrier would react to me destroying it. I didn’t want anyone to get injured in case it breaks violently.” He looked downcast. “I’ve hurt enough people for a lifetime.” Asgore cleared his throat.

 

“Lets do this.” Asgore closed his eyes, took a deep breath, exhaled, and opened his eyes again. His eyes were glowing a bright yellow, and he summoned his trident. He pierced the wall, and Sans was thrown back by the power. Everything faded to white.

 

In front of his eyes, lay a field of grass. It was night time, evidently, and Sans was slightly disappointed he didn’t see the sun. But the stars, oh! The stars were so beautiful. A gentle breeze blew, carrying an unfamiliar, but rather pleasant scent. The grass moved around gently making a swooshing sound. It was so serine and peaceful. Sans looked at Asgore. He was on the ground, weeping tears of joy, while crumbling the fresh moist earth in his hands. 

 

Sans looked back. where the barrier once stood, there was a cave with a door closing it shut. “I’ll go call the others.” 

 

He walked back, opened the door, and motioned for the two guards to call everyone out. He walked back, and sat in the grass, his head tilted back, feeling the breeze go through the holes and crevices in his skull. The rumbles of the crowd grew louder and louder, and before he could move, the first dozen monsters shoved their way out of the door. Sans hit the deck with a thud, and a stampede of monsters thundered through. Cheers and cries of joy was heard throughout the crowd. He got up, dusted himself off, and turned around, to see Papyrus and company exiting the barrier. He grinned at them, happy that they were able to make it out alive. 

 

_Rumble rumble._

 

They… they did not smile back. In fact they held terror in their eyes, staring behind Sans. Sans turned around, and the Earth shook again, again and again. Cracks started forming underneath the stampeding monsters. Blood curdling screams were lost in the sound of the Earth shattering, swallowing monsters whole. Sans stared in disbelief. _All that work.. for nothing..?_

Without thinking, he sprang into action, using telekinesis to pick up monsters before they were smothered in earth, and setting them in a more stable area. More of the earth shattered, and suddenly no place was safe. Papyrus, Toriel and Frisk were found on a strut of earth that was now a steep cliff over looking the destruction. 

 

Sans was furious. Arial had tricked him. They were going to die. And there was nothing he could do. He climbed, jumped, and flew over to Papyrus, Toriel, and Frisk. 

 

“Oh Sans!” Toriel cried, hugging him. Papyrus and Frisk were just staring, wide-eyed in disbelief. Suddenly, Arial, of all people, materialized behind Sans. Then, time… just… stopped. Monsters were hanging in mid air, terror a permanent fixture on their faces. Birds were frozen in the air, the grass swooped to one side. He turned around slowly, breathing heavily, left eye blazing past his skull. 

 

“So. You finally gave Asgore the soul. I’m happy you managed to do that.”

 

“WHAT. DID. YOU. DO.” Sans’s phalanges were glowing cobalt blue.

 

“Well, it was more of what _you didn’t_ do.” she stated flatly, checking her nails. “You waited to give Asgore the soul. So the underground didn’t have enough time to evacuate to safety. Had you have left when I told you to, everything would have turned out just fine.” 

 

**“W H A T.”**

 

“So guess what you get to do? she was walked over to where Frisk stood. 

 

“You get to start over.” 

She snapped her fingers, and time started up again. Sans threw his hands up, charging at her with all the magic inside him.

 

“ **NO!!!!!”**

 

And she just sat there smiling a little, checking her nails on her right hand, and pushing Frisk into the abyss with her left. 

 

The world faded to black.


	3. Sans: Re-Do

“WAKE UP, SANS! YOU’RE GOING TO BE LATE!”

 

Sans blinked his eyes open. For a moment, he forgot what had happened, but then it flooded back to him: The strange undying girl, the tremors, the evacuation, meeting Toriel the first time, and… Frisk. Sans eyes began to smolder.

 

_I’m going tear her to shreds for that._

 

He was startled from his thoughts by the yelp from his brother down in the kitchen. 

 

“For fucks sake, Papyrus, eat _over_ the bowl!” Sans shouted from his room. He grabbed his coat from the treadmill and slipped his pink slippers on, and walked out, slamming the door. There was a pull in his chest and he appeared in front of the cliff, awaiting Arial’s arrival. He was going to obliterate her. Of course, she’ll come back from the dead, but it would still make him feel a little better. The expression on Frisk’s face as they fell down the chasm was stained in his mind, and he tried to think about something else.

 

Sans recalled as many times as he could think of when he waited to judge Frisk in the final corridor. Not once there was tremor. _Why are there tremors now? Probably due to Arial’s appearance._ Sans was fuming. He waited another twenty five minutes, leaning against a tree, before he saw a flash of light. He looked over, keeping still, in hopes he wouldn’t be seen. There she was, looking around, taking it all in. _This would be a perfect time._ Arial was completely oblivious of Sans.

 

He teleported behind her, quietly summoned his ‘gaster blasters’ and cleared his throat. She turned around and was greeted with two large glowing canine skulls and an arch of sharpened bones, pointing at her at an angle. Her eyes were wide, and she was a little more than terrified.

 

“Hello, Arial.” Sans grinned darkly, his left eye glowing. 

 

“W-wha—“ 

 

Arial didn’t get to finish her sentence— the bones flew at her, and the gaster blasters fired at her. She was reduced to dust, and the metal box fell into the dust, still smoldering. 

 

Sans picked up the box and took the soul from it. He had an idea, and it was going to take a lot of jumps. 

 

He teleported to Dr. Alphys lab. she was digging in the fridge, looking for something. 

“M-mettaton? Can you pick up some ramen?” 

 

Mettaton rode down the escalator, taking selfies on Alphys cellphone. “Why yes, my darling creator! I’ll go get—some—now!” He turned his body slightly, heading for the door, still taking selfies. 

 

_Smack!_

 

Mettaton fell on his backside, startled that he just ran into someone. His front panel showed a red exclamation mark. “Well—uh Hello there Sans!” He pulled himself back up. “My, my! I must have been so distracted by your dashing smile that I simply ran into you! I hope you reserved a time to talk to Dr. Alphys, she’s currently very busy…” Mettaton turns around to see Alphys updating her status on a social media website. 

 

Sans tilted his skull back a little and raised his pseudo eyebrows. “Yes, because she is indeed quite busy. It takes a skilled artisan’s extreme focus to share a link to someone online.”

 

Mettaton rolled way, shrugging his arms (he doesn’t have shoulders). 

 

Sans approached Alphys. She turned towards him, but her eyes were still on the screen. “Hey, Doc, I need to talk to you. Its important, and we don’t have much time.”

“S-sure, Sans, wh-what do you need?” Alphys removed her glasses and cleaned them with her lab coat.

 

“I haven't gotten to Asgore yet, but I need you to get out the evacuation plans, and get them ready. There’s something that is going to happen, and we need to get everyone out of the underground as soon as possible.” Sans looked into her eyes, with all the intensity he could muster.

 

“B-but Sans, I need Asgore to give me the O-kay for this, I-I can’t just start d-doing this because you asked for it..” Alphys looked incredibly worried. 

 

Sans closed his eyes (somehow) and crooked his head to the side, and motioned with his hand for Alphys to calm down. “Shh.” Sans gently pulled the soul out of his pocket. Alphys’s eyes widened. “I need you, to… calm down, get the folder out with the plans in it and just get it prepared. In about three or four hours, the ground will start to shake, and things will be breaking. People will panic. If we are proactive—“ Alphys starts mumbling a bunch questions, but Sans puts two fingers in front of her lips. “If we are proactive, we can get out of here safely.”

 

Her eyes are full of questions and tears. “Th-the soul…. Wh-what about the ground shaking..? Th-that was my dream last night..”

 

“Alphys, I’m not asking you to understand me, I just need you to have it prepared, and wait for a phone call. Would you prefer it if you heard it from Asgore?” Sans’s gaze softened.

 

“Y-yes please…” She was trembling. 

 

“Alright. I’ll call you real soon.” 

 

Sans teleported, and found himself outside the large door, in the cold snow.

 

_knock knock._

 

He waited. 

 

….

….

 

_Knock Knock._

 

He waited some more.

 

….

…..

……

 

_KNOCK KNOCK._

 

Finally, he heard some shuffling. 

 

“Hold on, just a second my dear! I’m running to get my joke book!” Quick foot steps padded away. He huffed. This one might take a little bit longer. 

 

After a minute or two, he heard some more foot steps. “Okay, I’m back! This might be a short visit, I have a guest right now.” 

 

Sans put his skull up against the door. “Hey lady, I’d hate _tibia_ bother, but I have to talk to you about that guest of yours.”

 

The sweet voice chuckled. “What is it dear? I doubt you know my guest, they’re not from… around here.”

 

Sans grimaced. “Yeah, I know, but I wanna make sure the kiddo is safe. So, can you… hold on to ‘em? It will just be until a little later today, I’ll come back for the both of you.”

 

There was a slight gasp coming from the other side of the door. “Well, of course! I didn’t plan on… letting… them… go.”

 

Sans stood up, calculating his moves. He knew the little one was going to try to fight Toriel. There’d be no way Toriel could hold on to Frisk without Frisk knowing about the evacuation. And that would take too much time to convince.

 

“May I come in?”

 

“Umm, this may not be the best time. Perhaps later, when I put the little one to bed?”

 

There was some distressed mumbling behind the door. 

 

“Toriel. I need you to let me in.” Sans was getting serious. He could just _taste_ the uneasiness in the air.

 

“T-Toriel? H-how did you know my name?” Toriel’s voice was high pitched, and a little shocked.

 

_Oops. Forgot. Damn._

 

“That don’t matter right now. Hey, please open the door, I need to talk to the both of you.”

 

There was a slam. “I’M NOT GOING TO LET YOU HURT MY SON!”

 

_Oh fuck. Who is she talking to?_ Either way, it doesn't bode well for his plans. He hoped to a divine being that Frisk wasn’t having one of those… timelines. 

 

Sans, to his disappointment, resorted to ripping the door off its hinges. Toriel rang out a scream. The kid bolted out the exit. 

 

_Sonovabitch._ Definitely not going as planned. Eh, he’d let the kid go. Frisk was gonna be _fiiiiine._ Toriel was going to be more difficult to persuade. 

 

He walked in, slowly, carefully… carefully… carefu—

Sans was knocked to the ground by a fireball. 

 

“Stay back!” Toriel growled. She was trembling, her eyes filled with fire and tears. “They were going to be my child! Now Asgore is going to kill them!”

 

“I could sit here and tell you all the things that are wrong with that statement, but I’m kinda on a time limit here, pal.”

 

_Wow. Wasn’t planning on quoting Arial today, but then again, today has been anything but normal._

 

“Toriel, please. We’re going to do an evacuation of the underground. I need— need _ed_ you to hang onto your ‘guest’ so that we wouldn’t lose them.” 

 

“Yeah, so you can steal their soul!” “GET OUT!” She was in full tears now. 

 

“No! Toriel, I already have one! Here!” Sans pulls the soul out of his pocket. It glistened an orange gold in the ambient light. Toriel’s eyes stared in disbelief.

 

“Where did you get that?” She gasped, “How did you get a seventh soul?” 

 

“That _really_ doesn’t matter now. I’ll explain later, but will you _please_ trust me? I’m kinda in a hurry.” 

 

“Oh.. Okay. What do you need me to do?” Her face was grim.

 

“I need you to find Frisk, and hang out with ‘em. Go wherever they want to go, but stay with them. I’ll call you when I need you.”

 

“Okay, my dear.” Toriel paused, and looked Sans in the face. “Say, now that we know what each other look like, What is your name?”

 

“I’m Sans. Sans the skeleton.” _Well, at least he was able to say one of his lines._

 

Toriel reached up, and shook his hand. 

 

_Bleeeerrrch!_

 

Toriel looked taken aback. “Heavens! What was that? Was that you?” Her eyes were wide.

 

“Whoopee cushion hand shake. Works every time.” Sans grinned. “Well, I’ve gotta run. See ya, lady.” 

 

“Goodbye, Sans.” She smiled, and waved.

 

Sans felt a pulse in his chest, and he appeared in the throne room. Asgore was nowhere to be seen. 

 

“Asgore?” Sans looked around. Nope. Not here. 

 

_Shit, I don’t have time for this!_

 

Sans ran up to his house. He heard rustling in the kitchen. _Thank the stars._

 

Sans walked into the kitchen. Asgore was busy fixing tea. 

 

“Hey, ya big fluffy monster.” He leaned up against the door frame casually, trying to catch his breath nonchalantly. 

 

“Sans? Well hello, my boy! I haven’t seen you up here in a while! How are things back in Snowdin? Would you like some tea?” 

 

“Naw, I’m good. Do you have any ketchup?” Sans walked over to the fridge, pulled out the bottle of ketchup, and chugged it. Asgore stared curiously. He shook his head, getting rid of any thoughts.

 

“So what brings you here to my humble home?” Asgore cleaned out an ear with his finger. 

 

“Welp, long story short, I found a soul.” He presented the soul to Asgore. Asgore stared in disbelief. “Poor sod froze to death outside Snowdin. I didn’t have the _heart_ to let it go to waste.”

 

Asgore laughed a deep belly laugh. “That is fantastic, my boy! Let me see it.”

 

Sans handed him the soul. “My instruments have been picking up some weird signals. I think weshould start the evacuation immediately.”

 

Asgore searched his face for… anything. “Why… do you say that? What’s going on?”

 

San’s eye sockets went dark. “Trust me, Asgore. What’s coming would be best left behind us. If we leave, we won’t have to find out.”

 

Asgore scratched his head. “Well, if you say so, I trust your word. I know you have a background in science. I’ll call up Dr. Alphys, and we’ll get started right away.”

 

Asgore picked up his cell phone, pressed a couple buttons, and put it up to his ear. He waited, and waited… “Oh Hello!, Um is this Dr. Alphys? ….No? Is that you Mettaton?”

 

_Great. The box of scraps took the cellphone with him._

 

“Well, make sure you get to her as soon as possible….. Um… I’m not sure which show is my favorite.. I like them all!”

 

Sans eyes darkened. “Here, let me see it.” Sans took the phone right from Asgore’s ear. “Mettaton.”

 

“Why, Sans? Is that you? You have an amazing radio voice. You should defiantly consider that as a second option..”

 

“Mettaton, I need you get to Alphys right now and tell her to activate it. It needs to be now.”

 

“Of course, Darling! I will complete your honey-dos.” _click._

 

Sans sighed. “Well, Asgore, I’m off to pack. You probably wanna do the same.” 

 

Sans blinked, and he was standing in his room. He didn't hesitate. He grabbed his backpack, threw his old tennis shoes in there, along with his blue sweatshirt and two bottles of ketchup. He teleported to the back room, and took the same journals, blueprints and lab reports. He stopped by the door to quickly grab the photo of him and his brother at the lab and gently placed it inside the cover of a journal. Equipping his backpack, Sans set out to find Toriel, and hopefully Frisk. 

 

There was a great deal of walking around calling out Toriel’s name before he saw a movement in the shadows. Instantly on guard, Sans silently moved to the tree, and began searching any signs of people. 

 

“Toriel is waiting at the restaurant.”

 

Sans spun around. Standing in front of him, was Arial with Frisk unconscious in her hands. 

 

“What did you do to the kid?” Sans approached the both of them, concern in his voice.

 

“I found him asleep in a cardboard box.” She looked down at their resting face, smiling gently. Sans somehow believed her. “I told Toriel to wait in the restaurant, and that I would find the child. Frisk would have ran away from Toriel as soon as they spotted her.” 

 

Sans took a moment to consider her words. He was still pissed off about the last timeline, but this one was going a lot smoother, and Arial was actually _helping._

 

“Alright, take Frisk to Toriel, and stay with ‘em. I don’t need people running about. Also, would you make sure my brother Papyrus is packed? He's a tall, obnoxious skeleton. Can’t miss ‘em.”

 

Arial nodded. “Call Toriel if you need us.”

 

Just then, the intercom made a screeching noise, then began sending a message: “Evacuation code sequence 262 ready for deployment. All monsters return to your homes and await instructions.” 

 

People began slowly poring out of local businesses, and were murmuring amongst each other. 

 

“What’s going on?” “What’s that supposed to mean?” “Did Asgore get the seventh soul?” “Are we actually leaving the underground?” “ I hope everything is alright!”

 

The patrons of Grillbyz stayed put. Sans remembered then that Grillbyz was considered a ‘home’ for some reason. The patrons were there so often, it might as well been a home. 

 

Sans teleported to the final corridor, and leaned casually up against a pillar. He looked around. The whole room was tinted an orange hue, with stained glass windows and marbled flooring. The pillars, too, were made of marble. It was his favorite spot, but in a different way Grillbyz was. Sans had an almost religious attachment to the final corridor. So much emotion, so much change… so much blood was tied to this room. This room determined the fate of the underground before the world reset. It was _his_. The only other person that shared that religiousness was Frisk. Even after the resets, Frisk had always showed some sort of recognition to the hallway. Sans almost wanted to call it “The Hall of Judgement”, but in reality, the judging took place before the room was even entered. He not once walked into the final corridor on one of Frisk’s death runs without knowing full well what was going to happen. It was simply settled there. So it was the _final_ corridor.

 

And in about a half a day, it would be consumed by the earth. 

 

There was a tremor. Sans braced himself on the pillar, and heard a _clink!_

He walked over to the wall, and noticed a piece of yellow glass sitting on the ground. Gently, he picked it up, and put it in his back pack. For memories.

 

_I otta check up on Asgore._

 

Sans quietly walked across the bridge/wall that overlooked the city. _How am I going to evacuate the whole underground before it caves in?_ Sans rubbed his crown with his phalanges, and pulled them down, covering his face. 

 

“You know, you don’t have to do this alone.”

 

Arial tiptoed over to Sans and spun in a circle; her dress twirled around her, but at a modest height. 

 

“You have a lot of friends. Let them help you.”

 

“But I don’t have enough time to explain!” Sans fists hit the stone railing. 

 

“Who says you have to explain?” She inquired. “Most monsters in the underground know you by name. If not in reality, but in their dreams. All the resets, all the companionship with Frisk, the battles with the demon that resided in them— it was all spectated by the underground. They respect you, Sans. Most would follow your command without question.”

 

Sans stood in shock. “Wait, what? You’ve got to be jokin’. There’s no way they _all_ have dreams about me. Why me? What is so important about me?” 

 

Arial paused, choosing her words carefully. “There’s… something going on up on the surface. Something… huge. And terrifying. And the collapsing of the underground is but a small fragment of the destruction that will happen. We… need the people of the underground to help. They are our only hope. The dreams they are having isn’t natural, obviously. I am not entirely sure what exactly is causing it, but I have an idea.”

 

The light in Sans’s eye sockets disappeared, and stared at her with a menacing smile. “If you think you can send my folks to their deaths, you are sorely mistaken. My folks are not the warring type.” 

 

“No, thats not what I meant. Look, I’ll explain later, but we need to get these people are evacuated. You can do it. Call everyone to help. I will do what I can to assist, but this is _your_ timeline.”

 

My _timeline?_

 

“I need to check up on Asgore.”

 

“I already checked, the barrier is open, and people are on their way.”

 

Sans nodded. _Good. One thing at a time. If I pull this off, I’m going to sleep for days._


	4. Sans: Out Under the Stars

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bunch of fluff, and its a little short. A transition chapter.

Intercom: “Monsters in the HOTLANDS. Report to the throne room. Monsters in the HOTLANDS. Report to the throne room. Bring only essentials that you can carry.”  
 ****

 

Lines of monsters (not mobs, mind you) filled the hallways, and were moving smoothly. Sans had asked the royal guardsmen to keep chaos in check as all the monsters from the city exited the barrier, out into the unknown world of the Surface. Toriel and Asgore took the reins once monsters exited, and took them down the mountain, away from any possible danger. Undyne and Arial went out into the Surface to scout for a place to camp for the night. Sans held up the back, checking to make sure no one was left behind. Frisk was safely with Papyrus, and now the line shrank all the way to the throne room. 

 

The tremors became more impactful. The Hotlands was being consumed by the lava, and parts of the waterfall were breaking up, and were being flooded. More and more cracks were showing up in the throne room. Luckily, Dr. Alphys, being paranoid as ever, had kept a back up of all her data on her experiments, and of course all the anime that she collected. 

 

As the monsters retreated to the valley, the ground shuttered tremendously, and Mt. Ebott shifted down. It took several minutes for the earth to stop shaking. 

 

__________________________________________________________________________

 

 

The monsters were were dealing with mixed feelings of the departure. Many were ecstatic about seeing the Surface, feeling the wind between their claws and fins, the soft earth of the valley under their paws, and the warming glow of the sun and moon on their faces. Others were grieving for their recent homeland, and all the memories that they kept. Either way, they were leaving a place they could never come back to.

 

Sans had several questions. He did his part; he got everyone out of the underground. Not a single person was injured. They even managed to wheel onionsans out in a great tub. Now he wanted some answers. 

 

It was morning. The monsters had made make-shift tents out of blankets and a couple campfires from wood that the royal guard collected. They had sat in circles around the campfire that night, singing songs, listening to stories. Alphys had asked Mettaton to allow her to play an anime movie on his panels. Mew Mew Kissie Cutie was it called? Many monsters watched with her, and the whole time she was smiling about how many ‘friends’ she made. Arial and Undyne made fast friends during their scouting mission. A potluck of miscellaneous food was made in part by Grillby. It was both a celebration and a memorial for their past home. Later, he shared a ‘tent’ with Papyrus, Undyne, Alphys, Mettaton and Arial.

 

Sans blinked his eyes open, slightly surprised by the amount of light the sun created. Many monsters woke up with him, muttering about the bright light. Turning around, he noticed almost everyone else in his tent was still very much asleep. He had to admit, the best part about this morning was not waking up to Papyrus telling him he was going to be late to work. He had heard enough of that the past two years. One thing he did notice though, was that Arial was gone. She mentioned later the night before, as they were standing on a cliff, looking out into the wilderness, that she knew of a farm somewhere near by. The humans there were nice folk, and they might me monster sympathizers. _Monster sympathizers? There are monsters on the surface too?_

 

Yep. Sans had a lot of questions, and he was going to get them answered one way or another.

 

Sans walked out to the great bonfire, where Arial and Undyne were looking over a map, discussing plans. Toriel was tending to some sort of casserole overa smaller side fire. She stuck her finger in to taste it. “Grillby dear? Did you happen to pack any salt?” Grillby shrugged, as he was searching through a heavy duty backpack full of pots and pans. Greater dog stomped into the circle and dropped a massive load of firewood before bounding up to Arial and tackling her to the ground with puppy kisses. “Ahh! Thats a good…. dog? Such a good puppy wuppy.” 

 

“Hey, when you’re not preoccupied, I _mutt_ ask you some questions.” Sans grinned. 

 

“But I’m so _dog gone_ tired!” replied Arial, smiling brightly, “How about you throw me a _bone.”_ Sans’s skull shifted above his eye sockets, resembling raised eyebrows, and his eyes lit up a little in a mischievous way. 

 

“Careful what you wish for, kiddo.” 

 

Arial blushed. Undyne punched her shoulder. 

 

“Alright my children! Soups on!”Toriel stood back, admiring her handiwork. 

 

The group ate quickly. No conversation was made. After breakfast, everyone left to do their duties. Some began to fold up blankets, others packed bags. The royal guard was grouped up in a huddle. That left Arial and Sans by the bonfire, alone. 

 

“Alright kid. You saved my life, and the lives of all my pals. That takes some serious guts to do for someone who you’ve never met… Or at least someone who hasn’t met you. Thanks for all that. It was somethin' else.” Sans turned his head away from her, staring off into the pile of mess that is— was Mount Ebott. 

 

“But what I don’t get is why. Why do you care? The first time we met you said that you went back in time to help me out, and I… sent you. Who are you? Why does this—“ Sans waves his hands back in forth between the two of them—“matter?” 

 

Arial sighed, and looked at her hands. “Look, theres a lot of time—warping shit that I’m technically not allowed to talk about until it happens, but maybe if I talk about my past a little it might help some.”

 

“Alright, kid. Start talkin’.” Sans kicks some dust in the air.

 

“This is a long story. Are you sure you’re ready?” Arial took a seat on the grass. She patted the ground next to her. Sans sat down, his legs stretched out and crossed over each other. 

 

“So it started back when I was a wee lass…”


	5. Arial (childhood): Bad Dream

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There will be a couple chapters about Arial's background, just letting you know. Undertale characters will show up i promise :3

Bones flew in the air, cracking and bouncing off the checkered marble floor. A small figure dodged every one of them, before lungeing at the large static one. It swiftly side-stepped the attack just before the weapon could make contact. 

 

“You can’t understand how this feels.”

 

The larger figure summoned bones from the floor. The smaller one resorted to jumping on platforms above the bones to prevent from falling onto them. As the bones shrank back into the ground, the smaller figure leaped again for an attack. The larger figure side-stepped again. 

 

“Knowing that one day, without warning… Its all going to be reset.” 

 

Colossal skulls materialized from thin air and began shooting high energy beams at the smaller figure. The smaller figure hissed as it was nicked in the arm, their eyes glowing a bright red. It tried to attack again, to no avail. 

 

“Look. I gave up trying to go back a long time ago.”

 

A mixture of blue bones and white ones sprang up from the ground, and began moving around. The smaller figure was repeatedly hit. They screamed and attacked once more.

 

“And getting to the Surface doesn’t really appeal anymore, either.”

 

more colossal skulls began shooting energy beams at the small figure. They were able to dodge them, and they jumped up the the larger figure, but it was in vain. 

 

“Cause even if we do... we'll just end up right back here, without any memory of it, right?”

 

The skulls faced the figure and fried them before they had a chance to move. Sounds of screams and gurgling echoed throughout the lighted hallway.The larger figure grimaced. Then, the world faded to black.

 

 

 

“AHHHH!” 

 

 

 

A young girl popped her head off her pillow. She was trembling, and sweat was coating her face. 

 

“What is it, Arial?” Another little girl came running from a different bed over to the girl, her face worried, “Did you have that nightmare again?”

 

It took a second for Arial to register her face, which was black as midnight against the moonless sky.

 

“Yeah, the same one.” Arial ran her fingers through her frizzled hair. “I think I’m going to go out for a walk.” 

 

Arial, still in her silver nightgown, slipped on her heavy training boots and grabbed her ratty green sweatshirt that she found in the woods one day. Civilian clothes weren’t permitted on the Arcane base, but like Arial would care. The darker figure sipped on her boots and followed Arial out of the girl’s barracks into the hallway. 

 

They wound their way around the square—spiral staircase until they hit the first floor. Arial was about to walk straight out the door when the darker girl pulled her back, covering her mouth. Slowly, pit—pats of hard boots hitting the stone floor sounded from the distance. They sounded louder and louder until the sound was practically around the corner. Arial panicked a little and tried holding her breath as the footsteps passed their position with out hesitation. Then silence. The darker girl motioned that they continue to the door.

 

Arial bolted silently as she could out the door, the other close behind. They almost made it to thetree line when suddenly, they were frozen in place. The world spun for a brief second before she opened her eyes again. The guard was standing in front of her. He was a very tall man, and he looked rather buff in his uniform, although his face betrayed his true state: dirty skin, dark circles under his eyes, and a classic scar slashed over his face, taking out an eye. 

 

“Why hello, young one. It’s pretty late for you two to be out.” 

 

Still frozen in place, the man snapped his fingers, and she could move her lips. 

 

“Just going for a stroll, sir.” 

 

The man sniffed. “You do know civilian clothes aren’t allowed on base. Why aren’t you properly dressed for a stroll, then?” He began walking around the two frozen girls.

 

“It was going to be a quick stroll, for fresh air, then I’ll go back. No need to put on the full uniform, sir.” 

 

The man looked her dead in the eyes for a moment or two, then glanced at the other girl. “Don’t sir me, girl. When no one’s around, call me Dax. Go along with your ‘stroll’. And do me a favor and don’t get caught. I don’t need to be reprimanded for not catching you guys.”

 

He snapped his fingers and the girls were released from their frozen state. He clasped his hands behind his back, and cocked his head up a little, staring down his nose at them. “Don’t make me regret this kindness.”

 

Pausing for a second to look the man—er Dax, up and down, Arial and the other girl ran into the woods. Once they got far enough in so that no one could see them, they silently walked around until they found the narrow dirt path. The path went deep into the woods; many a fallen tree blocked their way until they made it to a clearing. 

 

The clearing was about a football field long and was covered in thick, overgrown grass. Random wildflowers poked up here and there, and there were some scorch marks in some spots. The girl picked a flower. “Did you know that man, Arial?”

 

“No. But something tells me that he knows me. Do you think he’s on our side, Dariela?”

 

“I wouldn’t know. I’d just keep an eye on him.”

 

“I agree.” Arial walked back several paces and faced Dariela. “You want to practice tonight?”

 

Dariela nodded. It had been a couple nights since the have had the chance to practice their magic. Of course they practiced their magic during the day with the other young ‘battlemages’, but that was structured. Arial and Dariela wanted to learn some new tricks on their own, and some of the spells might not be smiled upon. 

 

Dariela closed her eyes with her arms at her side. She snapped her fingers, and floating balls of fire appeared around the clearing, giving off dim light so that they could see. Then, she flicked her forearms and wrist up in a whip like motion and the ground in front of her sent off a shockwave of flame shooting out. Arial jumped out of the way before shooting off a pulse of energy at Dariela. 

 

Dariela was pushed back a couple yards, but she kept her footing. Then, focusing on Arial, sheput her arms out in front of her and clapped. Weak energy coursed through her arms and jumped out past her hands, forming a wall of flame that charged at Arial. 

  
Arial was hit, but not injured. This was just ‘practice’ magic that created a force, but was weak enough to not do much damage. It was more for visual effect for dodging. 

 

“You know, you could have tried to do that teleportation spell.” Dariela walked over to Arial and offered her a hand. Arial took it and pulled herself to her feet.

 

“I know, but it takes so much work.” Arial dusted off her night gown and sweatshirt. “I would have never gotten it to work before the flame wall hit me.” 

 

“Well it never hurts to practice.” Dariela shook her head. “What are you going to tell the maid about your night gown this time?” 

 

Arial closed her eyes and focused hard. Then, her night gown shivered violently, and dust came shooting out from every wrinkle. After it stopped, it looked pretty clean. 

 

“Do you want to go again?” asked Arial.

 

“Sure. But not too long. I don’t want to get in trouble because we slept in, like last time.”

  
______________________________________________________________________________

 

 

The sounds of bells rang throughout the base. Arial begrudgingly opened her eyes. It took a moment for her to remember where she was. Arial had promised the practice would be short-lived but time had quickly flown by. By the time they had gotten back to bed, the sun was just peaking over the mountains the other side of the forest. She turned to a row of beds, and noticed Dariela still quite passed out in the sheets. Arial rubbed the sand out of her eyes— she noticed something. 

 

_Curse it. Forgot to take off my sweatshirt._

 

Arial stealthily took it off and threw it under her cot. Most of the girls were already dressed in their training attire: Hard, but light calf—high black boots, tight trousers, A tight, silk turtle neck shirt and a heavy fabric vest. It was supposed to be done up, but many people unbuttoned their vest because the vest tended to fall on the smaller side. 

 

Arial walked over to Dariela’s cot and shook her awake.

 

“Snnuh huh?”

 

“We need to hurry— we woke up late!” Arial helped her out of bed as she gained her senses back. She ran back to her cot and started getting dressed. Dariela snuck back into bed. Slipping on her boots, Arial peeked out the window. Most people had already eaten breakfast and gotten dressed. _Looks like we skip out on breakfast again._

 

She turned around, finally dressed, before she noticed Dariela slumped over her own lap, face deep in the covers. She was snoring.

 

“Dari, we _need_ to go. Training is going to start in like five minutes!”

 

Dariela finally managed to stand up and slip her trousers on, and change out of her night gown. She slipped in her turtle neck and put on her vest, but she was buttoning the vest all wonky. Arial helped her correct the mistake, and pulled Dariela’s coarse hair into a pony tail before doing her own hair.

 

She slipped on her boots, and finally blinked the sleep from her eyes. “I swear to divine beings, Arial, I’ma kick your ass if we’re really late.”

 

“Um.” Arial stared worriedly out the window, “Can the ass kicking wait until later? They are doing roll call…”

 

“Why don’t you just teleport us down there?”

 

“I— I don’t feel confident in doing that. Not with so many people that could see us… I don't think Verena would like it if she discovered I could use a spell even she couldn’t make work…”

 

Dariela jumps up and shakes the remaining sleepiness from herself. “Come on then, lets see what our punishment is this time.”

 

________________________________________________________________________

 

 

“I see you two finally arose from slumber!” A _very_ tall, well-built woman stared down at them intensely. “Well, since you think you’re too good to come down and practice with the rest of your group, why don’t you go clean out the cages?” She pointed to the rickety building across the courtyard. The other girls and boys looked away from the conflict, while some snickered.

 

“Yes, Verena.”

 

“That’s _Dame Verena_ to you.”

 

A guard escorted them to the building, and put Dariela on the first floor, Arial on the second. There were no windows, except for the ones facing the wall— away from the training. Arial was handed a shovel and a bucket. 

 

“Clean the refuse.” The guard spat, “Unless you want to visit the Archmage.”

 

Arial’s eyes widened, slightly taken aback from the threat. “Well, yeah, I took the fucking shovel from your hands, didn’t I?”

 

The guard’s eyes narrowed, his crooked teeth gleaming wet with too much saliva. “Watch your mouth, bitch, before I slap it off your face.”

 

_What did I fucking do to deserve this asshole?_

 

“Look, buddy. I’m going to do the job. Just go away. I don’t work well with micromanagers.” Arial waved her hand back in forth in a sweeping motion, and gave a half smile. “Please? Is that the magic word?”

 

The guard was seething.

 

“No, I think he needs more than a ‘magic word’.” Arial heard the sound of snapping fingers, then the guard suddenly disappeared. 

 

Arial turned around, slightly nervous.

 

“I figured you wanted some better company.”

 

“Actually, I wanted no company.”

 

“Well, I’ll leave you to it then. Next time, try to finish your “stroll” before sunrise.” He made finger quotes in the air. Dax began to walk down the stairs.

 

“Wait—“ Dax stopped, listening.

 

“Why do you help me so much? I don’t ask for it.”

 

“Do you not want me to help you?”

 

“Well—“ Arial kicked dust into the air. “I guess I don’t see the point in you helping me. What’s it to you?”

 

Dax paused, choosing his words. “You… have great potential. It would be a shame if you were discouraged.” Dax continued walking down the stairs, and out the door.

 

_Well what the fuck is that supposed to mean?_

 

Arial picked up her shovel, and looked around. It was a fairly large room, with a huge jail cell with floor to ceiling bars that had kept the monsters in. However, currently the monsters were being “walked”, and Arial needed to clean up the refuse. She began fast and steady work, cleaning up straw from the ground, and cleaning up large piles of dung in the corner. Arial had never seen a monster before, but she figured that they were closely related to animals. That was how people referred to them, anyways. 

 

After a while, she was done, although she didn’t want to go out and face _Dame_ Verena yet. Hoping to divines that no one was down stairs except for Dariela, she felt a pull in her chest and she was instantly downstairs. There Dariela was, about half-way through a dung pile.

 

“Sorry about last night.”

 

Dariela jumped about ten feet in the air, a small ring of fire exploding around her in surprise.

 

“Damn it A! You about made me eat ceiling! Don’t jump me like that!”

 

_Oops. Forgot teleportation is kind of silent._

 

“Sorry about that. Do you want some help?”

 

“ _Haven’t you helped enough?”_ Dariela said with some sass. She looked down at the refuse, then up at Arial. She grimaced. “I suppose I could use some help.”

 

“Beats hearing Dame Verena’s damn voice.”

 

“I hear ya.”


	6. Arial: The Monsters

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, sorry It's been so long. Got lots of stuff loaded onto my life.
> 
> Thanks for readin'. It really does mean a lot to me haha

It was past noon when Arial and Dariela finished up cleaning the cages. The more they cleaned, the more Arial was curious about these monsters. She’s been a battlemage trainee of the Arcane Guard since she was born, and she has heard about them, but has never seen one before. They hung their shovels up on the wall, and carried the last bucket to the wheel barrel before washing out the bucket with a hose, and hanging it too on the wall. Just then, a couple guards wondered in and spotted the girls. 

 

“Hey, shouldn't you two be practicing with your group?”

 

Arial shrugged, dusting off her pants. “Dame Verena asked us to clean out the cages while the monsters were on their walk.”

 

“We’re just finishing up.” Dariela added.

 

One guard looked questioningly at the other. The other one shrugged. “Alright. I think you two can head on back there, now. We’re bringing in the monsters, and they can be pretty fierce.”

 

Dariela didn’t think twice before bolting out the door. Arial paused to think. 

 

“Curious, aren’t ya?” The guard smiled. “Probably haven’t seen one before, huh?”

 

“What? A monster? No.” Arial stared at the open back door. She didn’t want to miss a second.

 

The guard turned to the door. “Harley!” he shouted, “Bring em’ in!”

 

There was scuffling sounds from the back door. Then, a guard slowly walked in, pulling on a rope. The rest of the line came in, attached to a short, stumpy figure with webbed feet and a bill. It was light orange and had human-ish looking arms, and made some squawking sounds. But it was definitely not a duck. The rope was tied to a collar around its neck. The guard pushed the monster into the cage, and closed it quickly. 

 

A second monster stumbled into the large room. It was tall and muscular, much like Dame Verena, but it had green scales instead of skin, light blue hair and it had webs for ears. It had a human stature, and it wore only a ratty t-shirt and some basket ball shorts. The monster growled and snapped its pointy teeth at Arial as it passed. 

 

A third monster entered in, and it… was a dog? Standing on it’s hind legs. The poor dog-monster was whimpering, with a muzzle on. 

 

More and more monsters were thrown into the quickly over-crowding cage, until there was only enough room for sitting. Curious eyes glared and stared at Arial, and she was feeling a bit intimidated. 

 

“Come to bring us fresh meat, huh?” The green-scaled monster grinned sinisterly. 

 

“Shut up, you mutt.” The guard grumbled, “Hey kid, do me a solid and bring in that wheel barrel of food. You’re going to pour inthe food.”

 

“What?” Arial stared at the guard, feeling very nervous and unsure of herself. The monsters looked like they would eat her alive if she so as stuck a finger in the cage. Arial hesitantly ran around back and grabbed a wheel barrel that was filled with what looked like dog food. Her face knotted up in displeasure. _How can they eat this stuff?_

 

“What you do is pour the kibble into the large bowl here, insert it into this slot—“ The guard referred to a hole in the bars with a latched seal. He unlocked the slot before hanging the key back up on the wall, and carefully slipped a bowl of kibble that was only fractionally full onto a platform that held the bowl up. All the monsters waited for him to twist the lock on the seal before the nearest couple dove for the bowl.   


“See, they know to wait for you to finish.” He grinned with this twisted teeth. “If they don’t, you zap them with this.” He held up a long rod with a cow prod on one side. This was actually one of the more modern devices on the base; the archmage liked to keep things strictly ‘traditional’ on the base for some reason. “Now, you don’t want to fill it all the way, because they get antsy.” He looks at Arial, and she has a frown of doubt on her face. “Hey, they don’t mind. It keeps them on their toes.” The man stands up. 

 

_There’s no way that feeds all of them._

 

“I’m going to go for… a walk. You’ll be alright, eh? Don’t let them grab a hold of you, and you’ll do fine.” He begins to walk to the door, then stops and turns around, his face in a light blush. “An do me a favor for me and don’t tell the Dame. She’ll send me to hell for this. But you’re a smart girl. You won’t tattle.” He looks a little nervous, and walks out the door. 

 

_Does every guard here have a secret agenda? What the heck?_

 

“Well, what are you waiting for, pup?! Bring on the grub!” The green monster snarled. It took Arial a second, but she could definitely see now that the green monster was a female. Arial took a step back, not losing eye contact with the she—monster, and grabbed the scoop and began shoveling kibble into another bowl for another container. The bowl was _massive._ She could only fill it half way before she realized she wouldn’t be able to carry it over to the slot. She carried the half filled bowl over to the slot, wheeled the wheel barrel of food over by the cage. Her hands trembling a little, she unlocked the second flap and set the bowl down there. They rush for the bowl, betting that the little girl would be too afraid to do anything about it. Arial, with a scoop full of kibble still in hand, stares at the emptying bowl with indecisiveness. The green she—monster considers Arial’s motives. 

 

“Back off, folks! Looks like the pup’s gonna put some more in.” Arial looks at the she—monster. She was gazing at Arial with a look of interest and calculation. Arial nods her head, and slowly approaches the cage with the scooper. The monsters track the scooper with intensity. She opens up the flap with her right, and dumps with her left. the monsters cheer and dig in. Arial glances at the She—monster before moving the wheel barrel towards the next slot with another bowl. She caught a sliver of her lip upturned into a nebulous smile. She filled the next bowl. 

 

“You are acting quite generous for a human, pup.” The She—monster picked up a single piece of kibble with her thumb and pointer finger and inspected it casually before leaning down and handing it to a small, almost rodent sized monster. It took the kibble cautiously, humbled by the gesture. “Do you have a name?”

 

Arial continued shovelingkibble into the second bowl, and looked up at her. “The name’s Arial.” She opened up the flap and slid it down to the platform. More monsters crowded around the gate. The she—monster grunted. “Do you have one?”

 

“My name is Zulkin. And this here,” referring to the rodent—monster, “ is Anne.”Anne had a cat—like structure, but tended to stand on her hind legs like a meerkat. She had paws, but she also had opposable thumbs. her fur was a deep black with a blueish tint to it. Anne scrunched her face to what appeared to be a gentle smile.

 

“Hello Zulkin, and Anne.” Arial waved. “Its nice to meet you.” Arial moved to the third bowl. There were four in all. She furrowed her brows. She was curious about one thing: where did monsters come from? She’s never seen them in the woods, or in the base anywhere besides hearing rumors about them under a mountain somewhere. Anytime she brought it up with a proper battlemage, she was cut off, or told to go somewhere else. It didn’t feel like it was a big secret, though, so she guessed it was by coincidence or just maybe she was ‘too young’ to know. But here she was, _talking_ to a _monster._ If she had any questions about monsters, she should ask now. Arial didn’t know exactly how to phrase it, since it might be an awkward question. You know, considering her people have them enslaved and everything. _Holy crap!_ Arial thought, _monsters can talk! And they can think, and they have—_

 

“What’s got you concentrating so hard on that kibble?!” Zulkin griped, “It ain’t talkin’ to you, is it?” 

 

Arial paused. “Naw, I was just thinkin’, where do monsters come from?” 

 

Zulkin smiled maliciously, her sharp teeth glistening in the light. “Well, when two monsters love each other very much—“

 

Bashful and blushing, Arial stops her in mid sentence. “I figured that much, but where—“ Arial gestures upwards and out, creating a semicircle— “in the world do your people come from?”

 

Zulkin steps back, slight surprise on her face. “I am honored you consider us a _people._ I cannot recall the last time I’ve heard a human say something like that. 

 

“Have you heard of the _Great War?_ ”

 

Arial shrugs a bit, but looks genuinely interested. “I’ve heard of it, but I don’t know what happened in it.”

 

Zulkin gasps. “What are you here for? You are in this place of war, and you do not know your history?” Zulkin’s voice gets a little angrier. “Do your people care so little that they don’t even teach their pups what they’ve **done to a whole race?** ” 

 

Arial shrinks back, clearly upset that she angered the monster. She had hoped for some answers. 

 

“ **Let me tell you what your people have done to mine**.”

 

 

Arial steps back some more as Zulkin raises her hands and swirls them around in a circle. There was nothing for a moment, but then the circled area lit up with a blast of energy and there was a single image, like a picture. 

  
“Long ago, but not too long ago, there were two races, that ruled over the surface.” 

 

A monster figure, and a human figure appeared over a grassy plane with a large forest in the background, with mountains behind them.The monster and the human shook hands. Arial was mesmerized.

 

"There was the king of the humans, and then there was the king of the monsters."


	7. Arial: History Lesson (pt 1)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> trigger warning: self harm

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, this one is a short one, I'll post another one tomorrow!
> 
> Thanks for reading guys :) I know it's been a while, but I'll be better at it!

“The kings loved each other like brothers. They grew up together, after all. And through circumstance and perhaps a little bit of coincidence, they both ended up as kings of their own races. 

 

“The two races worked together peacefully— trading goods and services, training each other in various crafts and magic trades. All were citizens of the Kingdom. The two Kings worked together as a team, although living in separate parts of the Kingdom. (Magic can be quite useful). At the Human King’s side, there was the Archmage.

 

…

 

“Don’t look at me like that. I don’t know their names.” Zulkin coughed.

 

… 

 

“Oh come on! I was merely a whelp during this whole event. I’m not that old.” 

 

“Anyways, the Archmage seat was a great place to sit. It was cushy, lined with fur from some dead animal, and had a great view of a huge wall. The Human King never invested in art for the castle. Such a shame. My mother knew of a few people that would die for a commission…

 

“But for some reason, this wondrous chair was not good enough. The throne was made up of even more cushy material, and with more dead animals all over it. Humans have a thing for dead animals. And it had a wonderful view of an amazing window. Very distracting. Birds flew into it all the time. And the king felt so bad that he took out the glass so that the birds could fly in. 

 

“I digress. The Archmage wanted the throne, end of story. Well, except it isn’t because he had a very devious plan to get such a cushy seat. With his power, he called upon Farkle, an alchemist who had a thing for shiny things. 

 

…

 

“Yes. His name was Farkle. Don’t you dare laugh, pup. Farkle was a crazy sonovabitch. Sorry dog. 

 

“The Archmage instructed the alchemist— no I will not say his name again— to create something that would cause monsters to go berserk. Because… Because the Kingdom had a law in which if there was something of a state of emergency, and the King were to be unable to do his/her duty,the Archmage would be put in charge to set things right. 

 

“Well, he knew very well of the Kings’ friendship/bromance. It would take a lot for one of the kings to meet that criteria, and even if one did, the other would quickly step in. There was only one way: He had to take both of them out. 

 

“So, eventually, Farkle came up with a concoction that would cause monsters to go berserk. In the meantime, the Archmage started spreading rumors, saying that monsters are especially ahem, “powerful.”these rumors were sometimes taken to be compliments. I mean, I would like it if someone told me I’m strong.” Zulkin flexes, showing off her muscles. “But also, people began to be a little cautious around monsters when they were perturbed. It took many monsters aback. Why would people be afraid of a monster who’s never even hurt a fly?

 

“By then, The Archmage had mercenaries round up several dozen monsters and take them to a dungeon out in the woods, where the alchemist had many samples of the concoction ready. 

 

“One by one, the monsters were shoved into their very own cages. Someone even took the time to give them decorated name plates on their cages. Did I mention Farkle was crazy? A gas bomb was thrown into the room. The dungeon was filled with a red haze, and screams and growls were heard throughout the woods that night. 

 

“Each monster was consumed by the rage of the mist. Their screams of horror turned into fierce growls, then maniacal laughter. Their eyes turned red. their hair stood on end. They began banging at the bars of the cage. some of them were strong enough to bust out, but they were trapped inside. The Archmage and the Alchemist stood surrounded by a protecting bubble of magic as the locks of the cages and the exit were magically released. Most monsters sprinted out into the night. Some, the more intelligent ones, stayed behind, and waited for the the bubble of magic to wear off. Those would be the ones whowould have the archmage’s face imprinted in their minds. 

 

“Hold on.” Arial paused Zulkin. Zulkin looked slightly irritated. “How do you know exactly what happened that night?”

 

“Well, _pup,_ if you’d let me finish, you might find out.”

 

“Anyways, they dubbed the mist ‘bloodlust’ because it would cause the individual to experience a horrible pain, unlike nothing else, and then immense pleasure when he/she/it causes some bloodshed.” Zulkin has a slight crazed look in her eyes, “You get the best results when your hands are coated in the blood of your enemies!” Quickly she corrected herself—“I mean, that’s the case even without the bloodlust..” She looked slightly sheepish. “ ’s not like I was infected with bloodlust or anything. I just enjoy the thrill of the kill.”

 

Arial took one step back.

 

“Aye. Better watch yourself, pup. you’ve been a good pup so far, but if you hurt any of my friends, I will end you.” Zulkin’s eyes narrowed.

 

“I-I won’t hurt anyone, promise!” Arial whimpered.

 

“Good girl. Back to the story.” The figurines reappeared. “The morning after the monsters were released, it was in the news everywhere of several witnessed massacres by monsters. In every single massacre, the killer had calmed down, and forgotten everything that had happened. I guess that was a good thing. Who could live with themselves, knowing that they went home and… Well, you know. What I’m trying to say is… out of the thirty-six monsters who went missing the night before, only about sixteen saw the next sunrise. Dust filled the air like a fog that morning, and you could smell human blood for miles. Everyone was absolutely terrified. Both monsters and humans. 

 

“The Humans mostly considered it an attack upon their race, even though only 15% of the killings were actually of human descent. Immediately that morning, the king called upon the Archmage. He knew something was up. I don’t remember the specifics of the conversation, but it was something within the lines of ‘What do you think of the monsters?’ 

 

“Well unfortunately, the Archmage was no dumbass. ‘I love monsters!’ said the Archmage. Or something like that. He expressed his ‘admiration’ for monsters in some way. The King reluctantly bought it. Stupid kid. Had such a kind heart.

 

“The bloodlust, unfortunately, doesn’t really 100% disappear. Like Ever. So lets just say these monsters had a shorter temper. And were a lot more explosive than usual. And they don’t know why. And with that, monsters that hung around these monsters a lot were too, affected by the bloodlust. So both monsters and humans started believing these rumors over time, along with the idea that this ‘batshit crazy’ was hereditary. So the humans made a list. It was a black list. And it grew way larger than it ever should of. Monsters could no longer express negative emotions out in public or at work less they wanted to be added to the black list. The sigma grew.

 

“A couple more years later, and the humans had gone sour towards monsters. Hate groups arose. And all behind the scenes, the Archmage was recirculating the bloodlust, and planning. 


	8. Arial: History Lesson (Pt 2)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> SO sorry! Another short one. I am really trying to figure out exactly how this is going to go in the long run. Plus college is making me kind of busy.

“Those poor monsters…” Arial looked through Zulkin, staring at nothing.

 

“That’s not even the worst part, pup.” Zulkin crossed her arms. “Eventually, the Monster King was infected with the disease. My guess is that the Archmage had done it somehow. But the Human King refused to harm his brother and friend. One day, he even visited. The dumb fool. Long story short, Archmage gets control over the thrones, and decides to throw the infected monsters into the underground.”

 

Arial pauses for a second, and Zulkin waits patiently for her to say something. “Isn’t— Isn’t that underground place over by the mountain?” Arial thinks back to some of her previous lessons. Every now and then, her instructors would mention the mountain off in the distance, but the significance always eluded her.

 

“Yes, Mount Ebott. They were sent there, underground. Not without a fight, though.” Zulkin sniffed. This was _several_ years later, so you know. I remember the war, actually. I was in it. Every monster fought in some way. The ‘legend’ says that not a single human soul was taken. This is true. The bloodlust prevented human souls to be taken. But that doesn’t mean we didn't take some down with us.” Zulkin stared up into the ceiling. “There was dust everywhere. In the air, on the ground, all over my body. I remember breathing in a chest full of dust.” She shivered. “You never forget that feeling. It filled me with rage. We desperately fought for control. We didn’t care how the humans treated us, just as long as they didn’t send us… down _there._ We’re _monsters._ Not insects. We live on the surface. And this Archmage thought he could take a large portion of the monsters and shove them underground?” She began to snarl.

 

“They gathered all the young monsters. All of them. Along with some older monsters. My little sister was taken down there. She had beautiful blue scales, and gorgeous red hair— The most fierce eyes I had ever seen. They had us lined up and they gave us twenty seconds to say our good byes to our children. My sister. I didn’t say anything to her. I wrestled the guards to the ground. I wasn’t just going to stand there and let them _take her from me.”_ Her voice had decrescendo-ed down to a whisper. “I shouldn’t have fought. I should have just memorized her face.” There was a pause. Then, she cleared her throat. “ They took a lot of children. Along with a bunch of other monsters. They didn’t even care whether the monsters had bloodlust or not. The humans had won. They kept only a few monsters up here— the warriors, mostly, to use as _target practice._ ” 

 

Arial touched her own face with her fingers, and noticed the wetness. She refused to dry it. “So that’s why you’re here.” 

 

“That’s why I’m here.”

 

“I don’t want to be a battlemage anymore.” Arial stared at her hands. Just twelve hours ago, she was practicing battles with Dariela. Now, that seemed like the last thing she wanted to do.

 

“Well, pup, you can make that decision on your own time.” Zulkin finally looked down at the last bowl. “Ya going to fill this last one?”

 

“Oo-oh. Yeah.” Arial stammered. She filled the bowl up to the brim, and set the wheel barrel back outside. She dusted herself off before walking back in. Zulkin watched her expectantly. 

 

“My people have been imprisoned for years. We are crammed into these cages, and forced to fight whelps like _you._ But you are cut from a different cloth than those other, uhh, ‘battlemages’ as you called them. I am intrigued by your empathy. See to it that we meet again.” Zulkin’s mouth curled up ferociously to what would be a ‘smile’. 

 

Arial looked into her eyes. “I will try.” 

 

A loud shout was heard outside. It sounded like someone was calling her name. She ran outside, contemplating the new information she received. It filled her with determination.


End file.
